JPS60476B2 - Continuous heat treatment method and device for crimped tow mass - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a continuous heat treatment method and apparatus for heat-setting crimped fibers crimped by a crimping machine, particularly a mass of rolled longitudinal tow, and more particularly relates to a continuous heat treatment method and apparatus for heat-setting crimped fibers crimped by a crimping machine, and more particularly, to A method for performing a complete heat setting process by continuously performing vacuum degassing, uniform buffering, and set forced cooling using high-temperature pressurized steam on a crimped toe mass in a bent shape, and an apparatus for carrying out the method. It is related to.

Generally, it is widely known that thermoplastic synthetic fibers can be crimped and treated with high-temperature steam under pressure to set them in a buckled and bent state, giving the fibers bulk.
and is being carried out.

In order to impart bulkiness to acrylonitrile synthetic fibers in particular, the synthetic fiber tow is usually subjected to the above-mentioned high-temperature steam treatment under pressure. For the above-mentioned treatment, it is necessary to heat-set the crimped fibers in a buckled state. Conventionally, various means have been used to continuously heat-treat the crimped warp fibers. is provided, for example,
Publication No. 311, Special Publication No. 45-9148, Publication of Hakama Kosho 4
5-39065, Japanese Patent Publication No. 45-36333, etc. have been proposed.

These methods involve transferring the rolled fibers, especially the tow mass, to a heat treatment device and heating and treating the fiber mass using pressurized steam or other hot soot. A large number of them are transported in a chain and are held by moving containers, endless belts, rotating drums, nip rolls, etc.

However, these devices have a fatal flaw in that uniform heat treatment is extremely difficult.

In other words, since these devices are characterized by the self-sealing of high internal pressure by the wound fibers themselves, the packing density of the fiber core must be increased, and as a result, the penetration of the heat medium into the fiber mass is reduced. The crimped fibers are not heated to a uniform temperature, resulting in uneven temperature.

The quality of synthetic fibers is greatly affected by the heat treatment temperature.
The above-mentioned temperature unevenness impairs the uniformity of quality and lowers the commercial value. In addition, the fibers to be processed are forcibly fed in by a push roller of a crimping machine and are buckled and crimped, and these buckled and crimped fibers need to be heated and set without loosening their bends. However, as the heat treatment of the crimped fiber mass filled in a constant preparation volume chamber progresses, the rebound force due to buckling stress generated inside the fiber single yarns gradually disappears, and the bulk of the entire fiber mass inevitably decreases. Therefore, it is difficult to maintain the original shape of all the fibers in a filling chamber with a constant charging volume, which is buckled and bent, and in the latter half of the heat treatment, the degree of bending of the fibers loosens and elongation occurs, resulting in uneven crimp. Cause. Furthermore, as mentioned above, since the above-mentioned device is characterized by self-sealing by the rolled fiber mass itself, the high reduction crimping and flattening of the fiber mass that occurs as heat setting progresses induces steam leakage, reducing the amount of steam used. It is pointed out that there are disadvantages that increase

Therefore, the first object of the present invention is to improve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional apparatus, and to solve the problem that, as the heat treatment progresses, the volume of the crimped tow decreases, uneven crimp occurs, and the amount of steam increases. In view of this, as a countermeasure, a pressing mechanism is installed on the top cover of the conveyor device to constantly tighten the filled fibers to a predetermined pressure.
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus that are completely self-sealing and have no steam loss.

Another object of the present invention is that the temperature increase rate and processing unevenness when heat-treating a fiber lump are controlled by the presence of air in the fiber lump, and if air remains mixed in, the processing unevenness will not be eliminated. ,
To deal with the fact that there is a limit to the reduction of processing time, the aim is to improve the processing time by incorporating a degassing method, adding a buffering step, and combining it with the subsequent heat treatment step.

Another object of the present invention is that due to the nature of thermoplastic synthetic fibers, they become extremely soft when exposed to high temperatures, and even if a slight external force is applied, thread breakage, crimping, or unnecessary stretching may occur. The object of the present invention is to quickly force cooling the crimped toe mass to solve the above problem.

Another aspect of the present invention is to eliminate the tendency of the heat treatment liquid residence time to remain constant as seen in the drum method, and to enable the competitive residence time to be arbitrarily selected and to obtain a residence time suitable for the type of fiber. This is one purpose.

Therefore, the continuous heat treatment method of the present invention that achieves the above objects uses two sets of endless conveyor devices, and these conveyor devices are arranged so that their conveying sections are opposite to each other and pass through the heat treatment tube in synchronization. A decompression chamber, a buffer chamber, a high-temperature pressurization chamber, a buffer chamber, and a forced cooling chamber are sequentially installed between the conveyor sections located opposite each other, while accommodating the crimped tow mass in a buckled state as it is. The crimped toe mass is passed through a heated heat treatment cylinder, and the crimped toe mass is packed in a preparation box and degassed under reduced pressure.Then, the degassed state inside the crimped toe mass is made uniform under a vacuum seal, and then the crimped toe mass is subjected to pressurized steam treatment. It is characterized in that it is further buffered and cooled. Further, in performing the above-mentioned process, the present invention always tightens the tow mass in the preparation box with a predetermined pressure, and
The present invention is characterized by a specific device configuration for effectively performing forced cooling and installing a cooling air blowing mechanism at the upper part and a suction machine at the lower part to smoothly carry out the process.

Particularly noteworthy in the present invention is that the rolled tow mass leaving the crimper is deaerated in a vacuum chamber, and then enters a buffer chamber and undergoes a buffering process.

In addition, after processing in a high-temperature pressurized chamber at a processing temperature and processing time suitable for the fibers, the fibers are passed through a buffer chamber before forced cooling.
A buffering effect is performed. Moreover, throughout the entire process from degassing to forced cooling, the filled fiber mass is always maintained under a predetermined appropriate pressure for each process. In the present invention, buffering means applying pressure seal to the rolled tow mass by lagooning for an appropriate period of time to equalize the internal condition of the tow. Since the mass is self-sealing, a certain length of sealing zone is required.

An example of a specific embodiment of the method and apparatus of the present invention will be described below based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the principle of the method and apparatus of the present invention, in which A is a heat treatment tube, and 1 is a fiber material to be treated, for example, a wound material, which constitutes an endless conveyor that rotates through the heat treatment tube A. The filling box 1 is a porous filling box for storing reduced tow particles, and the filling box 1 is successively connected by connecting pins 4 to form an endless conveyor as a whole, and wheels 5, 5' driven by an appropriate drive device (not shown). It rotates continuously in one direction.

Reference numeral 2 denotes the upper lid of the filling box 1 which rotates through the heat treatment cylinder A in the same direction as opposed to the upper part of the endless conveyor, and is shown as a perforated upper lid conveyor in the figure. As shown in FIG. 2, for example, the side plates of the filling box and the side plates of the top lid are engaged with each other so that their inclined parts butt and engage with each other. 6 and 6', it is pushed into the filling box 1 and transferred.

The rotating conveyor, which is formed by the filling box 1, the upper lid conveyor 2, and the endless heat-resistant belt 3, has guide rollers 7 arranged at appropriate intervals above and below to maintain the continuous cylindrical shape and prevent meandering. While the trajectory of the conveyor is regulated by the guide rollers, etc., the conveyor moves in the same direction at the same speed at a predetermined location, and heat-treats the rolled vertical tow mass housed inside the filling box 1 in the heat-treating cylinder A. There is. In this case, an elastic member is used so that the crimped tow mass 24 interposed between the upper lid conveyor 2 and the heat-resistant belt 3 below it and filled between the filling box 1 and the heat-resistant belt 3 can be compressed at a predetermined pressure at all times. A spring mechanism consisting of the crimped tow mass 2 is provided.
As the volume of belt 4 decreases, the compressive force of the elastic member causes heat-resistant belt 3 to
Tighten to the appropriate predetermined pressure through the
This prevents steam leakage caused by incomplete sealing due to high pressure reduction. 3 and 4 show details of the spring mechanism attachment part, and in FIG. 3, a leaf spring 21 is attached to the lower surface of the upper lid conveyor 2 and interposed therein,
FIG. 4 shows another embodiment in which a coil spring 21' is used instead of the leaf spring 21, and is attached to the upper lid conveyor 2 and compresses the crimped toe mass 24 via a heat-resistant belt presser plate 22. are doing. Further, in FIG. 4, a guide fitting 23 is appropriately installed between the upper lid conveyor 2 and the heat-resistant belt presser plate 22, but the guide fitting 2
Reference numeral 3 serves as a seal between the upper lid conveyor 2 and the heat-resistant belt 3 in the traveling direction, and at the same time serves as a stopper to prevent the belt pressing plate 22 from lowering too much. As shown in FIG. 2, the detailed internal structure of the heat treatment cylinder A is divided from the front into a decompression chamber 8, a front buffer chamber 9, a high temperature pressurization chamber 10, a rear buffer chamber 11, and a forced cooling chamber 12. A seal portion 14 is provided at the entrance and exit of each chamber to perform pressure sealing. As the sealing method in this case, a known grand sealing method, labyrinth sealing method, or the like may be used as appropriate. The vacuum pump 1 sets the true gradient inside the decompression chamber.
3 are connected to each other, and the degree of vacuum is set according to the type of fiber to be processed, and the vacuum level is maintained during the processing. The high-temperature pressurizing chamber 10 is a chamber for treating the fibers to be treated at a temperature and residence time most suitable for their physical properties, and high-pressure steam is mainly used as a treatment medium and is sent into the chamber 10 and comes into contact with the fibers. . In the figure, 10a is a consignment feeding section, 10b
is the drain discharge part. The buffer chambers 9 and 11 are provided with seal plates 15 for closing the perforated plates provided on the filling box 1 and the upper lid conveyor 2 above and below with the filling box conveyor in between, and the pressure in the depressurizing part and the pressurizing part is reduced. The seal forms a seal zone of a certain length based on the fact that the seal is self-sealing within the crimp tow mass itself, and the length is selected depending on the type of fiber, and the seal zone is formed by degassing the inside of the crimp tow mass. It equalizes the steam state. In addition, the forced cooling chamber 12 following the rear buffer chamber 11 is equipped with "
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, a cooling medium, mainly a cooling air circulation mechanism, is attached, and air compressed by a high-pressure turbo fan 16 is cooled by a heat exchanger 17, and an air baffle plate 18,
The air passes through the perforated rectifier plate 19, passes through the crimped tow mass 24, passes through the perforated rectifier plate 19 and the air rectifier plate 18 in the lower part, and returns to the turbo fan 16'. At this time, forced cooling chamber 12
An air seal section 20 such as a labyrinth or gland packing is provided in order to put the upper part in a pressurized state and the lower part in a suction state. Of course, the configuration inside the forced cooling chamber 12 is not limited to the above configuration, and it goes without saying that the design can be changed as appropriate. Next, a mode of continuously heat-treating the crimped toe mass based on the configuration of the heat-treating apparatus as described above will be described.
The rolled tow mass filled in the filling box 1 is transferred to the upper lid inorganic conveyor 2.
and a heat-resistant belt conveyor 3, and as the conveyor rotates, it is fed into the decompression chamber 8 via the guide roll 7 and through the seal portion 14.

At this time, the desired packing density of the striped tow core 24 can be easily obtained by adjusting the speed of the supply toe, the filling box, and the endless conveyor. Also, the decompression chamber 8
The degree of vacuum is set to a predetermined degree by the vacuum pump 13. The crimped tow mass 24 deaerated in the decompression chamber 8 enters the next front buffer chamber 9, and after equalizing the degassing condition inside the crimped tow under a vacuum seal, it enters the high temperature pressurization chamber 1. . Thus, heat treatment with steam is performed here at a temperature and a filling time that best suit the physical properties of each fiber. As the heat treatment progresses in this chamber, the volume of the crimped toe mass decreases, but it is compressed with a predetermined pressure by the elastic member 21 or 21' attached to the upper lid conveyor 2, to cope with incomplete sealing due to the decrease in volume. . After completing the heat treatment in the high-temperature pressurizing chamber 10, the rolled cord mass then enters the rear buffer chamber 11, where it is sealed with a sealing plate 15 that closes the perforated plate provided in the filling box 1 and the upper lid conveyor 2. After the processing condition inside the crimped toe mass is made uniform, it is advanced to the forced cooling chamber 12. In this forced cooling chamber, the air compressed by the turbo fan 16 is cooled, passed through the crimped toe mass, sucked in from the lower part, and then sent out to the next process through the seal section 14. The crimped toe mass 24 that has been set becomes a series of fibers that have been continuously heat-treated according to the present invention, and are subjected to a known next process and used for desired purposes.

The present invention consists of the method and device configuration as described above, and according to the present invention, {1) it has a configuration that can cope with the settling of the crimped fiber mass due to heat treatment, and (2) it has a structure that can cope with the settling of the crimped fiber mass due to heat treatment, and (2) by providing a buffer chamber. The sealing performance is improved by the winding tow, and the uniformity of the condition is promoted, and a series of continuous processing operations such as depressurization and pressurization can be effectively performed in the same can. Since it is forced to cool in bulk, it has various effects such as being able to perfectly maintain its crimped form after heat treatment.

The fibers processed in this way are degassed under reduced pressure and steam processed without being subjected to any tension or friction while being statically placed in a continuously rotating filling box. In addition to being able to perform a complete heat set without temperature unevenness, there is almost no steam leakage from the setter that always accompanies these steam sets, and in combination with forced cooling, the heat set form is perfectly maintained. In this way, it is possible to provide a wound warp fiber with uniform quality without temperature unevenness and with no crimp and high commercial value. Moreover, in the present invention, the heat treatment temperature range is extremely wide, and the temperature and setting time can be freely selected, so it can be used for a wide variety of fibers, and is a leading continuous heat treatment method and apparatus with excellent properties. It has a certain usefulness.
In particular, the method and apparatus of the present invention are extremely suitable for various synthetic fibers with strong thermoplasticity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a side sectional view showing the main parts thereof, Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of an endless cosopair of filling boxes, and A is a vertical sectional view. , the mouth is a partial side sectional view, FIG. 4 is a partial view showing another embodiment of the spring mechanism, and FIG. 5 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the forced cooling chamber. 1...Porous filling box, -2...Top lid, 8...
Decompression chamber, 9... Front buffer chamber, 10...
High temperature pressurization chamber, 11... Rear buffer chamber, 12...
... Forced cooling chamber, 21, 21'... Spring mechanism, 24... Crimp toe mass, A... Heat treatment cylinder. Hair drawing with hair design J drawing Yoshiko drawing hair drawing

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. On the upper surface of an endless conveyor constructed by connecting porous filling boxes 1 in the shape of a gutter, an endless conveyor constructed by connecting a porous top cover 2 is arranged so as to face each other and rotate in synchronization with each other. Then, the crimped tow mass 24 is continuously introduced into the inside of the porous filling box 1, and then the top cover 2 is sequentially attached to the top surface of the porous filling box 1 by butt engagement, and as the two conveyors move, A decompression chamber 8, a buffer chamber 9, and a high-temperature pressurization chamber 1 are provided in the subsequent heat treatment cylinder A, holding the crimped tow mass in a porous filling box with an upper lid.
0. The crimped tow mass 24 is passed through the buffer chamber 11 and the forced cooling chamber 12 in sequence, and the crimped tow mass 24 is depressurized and degassed in the processing cylinder, and then the degassed state inside the crimped tow mass is equalized under a vacuum seal. After this, the crimped tow mass 24 inside the filling box 1 is held at a predetermined pressure while being brought into contact with a pressurized treatment medium to undergo heat treatment, and then buffered and cooled in the filled state. continuous heat treatment method. 2. A perforated upper lid 2 is provided on the top of an endless conveyor constructed by connecting gutter-shaped porous filling boxes 1, which are sequentially filled with the crimped tow blocks that are introduced into the container. An endlessly connected upper lid conveyor is sequentially disposed in synchronization with the rotation of the endless conveyor of the porous filling box so that the upper lid 2 thereof is fitted and engaged with the upper surface of the porous filling box 1 filled with the crimped tow mass. , and furthermore, an endless porous heat-resistant belt 3 is installed surrounding the top lid conveyor so that the belt moves and rotates between the top lid conveyor and the porous filling box conveyor together with both conveyors; A heat treatment cylinder A that includes both conveyors 1 and 2 and the heat resistant belt 3 and passes through is installed on the path through which the upper lid conveyor moves with an endless porous heat-resistant belt 3 interposed therebetween, and a decompression chamber 8 is provided in the heat treatment cylinder A. , front buffer chamber 9, high temperature pressurization chamber 1
0, the rear buffer chamber 11 and the forced cooling chamber 12 are sequentially divided and arranged through sealing materials, and the front and rear buffer chambers 9, 1
1 is provided with a seal plate 15 for closing the holes provided in the filling box and the upper lid, and the tow mass in the porous filling box is placed between the porous upper lid 2 and the endless porous heat-resistant belt 3 under a predetermined pressure. A tightening spring mechanism 21 or 21' is provided, and a cooling medium blowing mechanism is installed in the upper part of the forced cooling chamber 12 and a suction mechanism is installed in the lower part of the forced cooling chamber 12, sandwiching the endless porous heat-resistant belt 3 and the endless conveyors. Features: Continuous heat treatment equipment for crimped tow blocks.